Surging between China and Russia: Legacies, Politics, and Turns of Sinology in Contemporary Mongolia

While the humanities dominated the sinological agenda in Mongolia before the 1950s, political intervention in the 1960s transformed the style of research. To begin, academic relations with China were severed. Sinologists received their training in the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, a string of humanity lingered on in the style of research carried out by the 1950s’ generation and had an impact on later developments among the early generation of students trained after the mid-1970s. New generations of students invariably go to China or Taiwan for training. In the twenty-first century, Russia has completely lost its pedagogical position. However, those trained in the Soviet Union during the Sino-Soviet conflict have continued to hold many political and academic positions. Other than that they may hold relatively critical views of the Chinese government, differences in research and perspectives are no longer clear.